You missed the obvious title, “Explainer Videos EXPLAINED”
The key thing you’re missing is that you (and I’m assuming most of your subscribers) are on the extreme end of the media consumption spectrum. Of course we are going to understand what happens in these movies where any explainer video is painfully redundant. But you’re seriously underestimating how little the vast majority of the population notices or even cares about the nuances of narrative entertainment, especially TV and film. They watch these things while doing other things, or having conversations. I think it’s rare for the average viewer to make it a priority to give their full attention to what they are watching, or to look deeper for themes or any sort of nuance. I have a friend that routinely invites me over to watch a movie, but ends up spending most of it doing paperwork, or laundry, or unloading the dishwasher. I’ll pause the movie waiting for her but she always says, “Don’t wait for me.” Inevitably, she’ll ask questions about the most basic plot points and ultimately will have an incomplete opinion at best about the movie we watched. I’m sure we all experience this.
Or even better, I have an extremely nerdy friend who used to own a comic book store. He watches all the nerd stuff, but fantasy is the lowest end of the nerd stuff he watches. So some friends of mine and I would gather every week to watch Game of Thrones. For YEARS. We’d been watching and discussing the episodes every week, like good nerds do. I thought we were all on the same page. So it gets into season seven, when Dany and Tyrion finally arrive in Westeros. This one nerd friend pauses the video during one of the episodes and says, “Wait a minute. They were in a different place this whole time? I thought Dany and Tyrion and that whole story was just in another part of Kings Landing.” We were flabbergasted, and still are to this day. For six seasons, he thought that whole other continent storyline was taking place in the same area as everything else. “What did you think the whole animation with the map going ACROSS the sea meant??” Anyway, that was my proof that the super-nerds are just a special breed of movie and TV watchers. Not better, just different. We aren’t as numerous as we’d like to think.
Most people probably LOVE the explainer videos. It helps fill in all the blanks on the show they were only halfway paying attention to.
I wouldn't necessarily call what you're describing ambiguity. I might call it multifacited or multilayered on an emotional level, especially if it's personally speaking to different generations on different levels. However, some films are purposefully ambiguous and I absolutely hate them. The perfect example is Inception. Is it real? Is it a dream? I don't care. I didn't spend $20 and 3 hours to leave with more questions than I brought. I will say the same of novels, even more so because the investment is greater. It's one thing to end and wonder "what will the future hold" for our characters, and it's another thing to put the book down and feel like a promise was broken. Most endings should hit us like a piano dropped from 20 stories, not like a feather behind the ear.
Hope you're feeling better soon! It sucks to be sick, but you managed to crank out a great article at the same time and that's to be commended 😁
Loved this. Banshees was an amazing surprise of a film and the story, so small and simple and quiet for the most part was about so many things and i still wrestle with why the characters did what they did. And that's ok! Such a great reminder that everything doesnt have to be wrapped nicely with a bow!
I see that summarizing a lot in book reviews too. 3/4 of the “review” is nothing more than a summary of the book. That’s not what I wanted in a review. I wanted an opinion on a book, not a CliffNotes version of the lot. I can read the blurb just fine.
How dare you almost make me use up half of my day watching that very excellent Transformers video! At 48 minutes long, I wish there was an explainer video that captured the highlights!
I had a period of time where I was watching every "951 EASTER EGGS IN LATEST MARVEL EPISODE/MOVIE" video, but found that they were sapping my enjoyment of just being surprised at what was coming in later episodes. The Marvel TV shows/movies might be a special exception because there are decades of source material that referenced in them and sometimes it is nice to have an explainer to go through it all. But it's not something I would want to watch all the time.
However, I will defend to the death the excellent Pitch Meeting channel.
Ah, those videos. They're basically white noise in the suggestion video section to me when browsing youtube, like 'how it should have ended,' those modern presidents doing gaming things videos (popular gaming discourse is awful enough why would I want to watch it fused with obnoxious political memes), or anything with a real person making an exaggerated expression.
Though I've found that people do in fact have pretty bad media comprehension, enough to completely miss the point of very unsubtle stories and make me doubt if they actually experienced said work. So sadly I suspect these explainer videos are genuinely needed.
YouTube still isn't a primary source for everyone. There must be millions of websites offering not only explainers for films but also for TV and streaming.
The explainers often demonstrate the extent to which a devoted fan of something has failed at basic viewing and comprehension.
I recently read an ending explainer that got their speculative conclusion wrong. It wasn't even difficult. A Tshirt that appeared earlier was the same Tshirt worn by the final shooter. No guess work, no ambiguity. The explainer, meanwhile, had offered multiple possible perps for the ending. He only corrected later, following, I assume, bombardment from people who had paid attention, so already undersood the ending.
Yes! Actually I’m posting something soon about getting readers to “work for it”. Anyway I love the Banshees film and part of the reason is all the subtle layers that can be interpreted in many ways. Although somewhat of a parable, it takes on a life of its own about the Troubles, friendship, Modernity, etc. Really enjoy the later examples you use here and have to check out the other cinema channel. Kermode is the best! He’s got a great podcast as does Brett Goldstein (who interviews him on a special edition). Thanks for some great perspective and antidote to “black & white content”
You missed the obvious title, “Explainer Videos EXPLAINED”
The key thing you’re missing is that you (and I’m assuming most of your subscribers) are on the extreme end of the media consumption spectrum. Of course we are going to understand what happens in these movies where any explainer video is painfully redundant. But you’re seriously underestimating how little the vast majority of the population notices or even cares about the nuances of narrative entertainment, especially TV and film. They watch these things while doing other things, or having conversations. I think it’s rare for the average viewer to make it a priority to give their full attention to what they are watching, or to look deeper for themes or any sort of nuance. I have a friend that routinely invites me over to watch a movie, but ends up spending most of it doing paperwork, or laundry, or unloading the dishwasher. I’ll pause the movie waiting for her but she always says, “Don’t wait for me.” Inevitably, she’ll ask questions about the most basic plot points and ultimately will have an incomplete opinion at best about the movie we watched. I’m sure we all experience this.
Or even better, I have an extremely nerdy friend who used to own a comic book store. He watches all the nerd stuff, but fantasy is the lowest end of the nerd stuff he watches. So some friends of mine and I would gather every week to watch Game of Thrones. For YEARS. We’d been watching and discussing the episodes every week, like good nerds do. I thought we were all on the same page. So it gets into season seven, when Dany and Tyrion finally arrive in Westeros. This one nerd friend pauses the video during one of the episodes and says, “Wait a minute. They were in a different place this whole time? I thought Dany and Tyrion and that whole story was just in another part of Kings Landing.” We were flabbergasted, and still are to this day. For six seasons, he thought that whole other continent storyline was taking place in the same area as everything else. “What did you think the whole animation with the map going ACROSS the sea meant??” Anyway, that was my proof that the super-nerds are just a special breed of movie and TV watchers. Not better, just different. We aren’t as numerous as we’d like to think.
Most people probably LOVE the explainer videos. It helps fill in all the blanks on the show they were only halfway paying attention to.
I wouldn't necessarily call what you're describing ambiguity. I might call it multifacited or multilayered on an emotional level, especially if it's personally speaking to different generations on different levels. However, some films are purposefully ambiguous and I absolutely hate them. The perfect example is Inception. Is it real? Is it a dream? I don't care. I didn't spend $20 and 3 hours to leave with more questions than I brought. I will say the same of novels, even more so because the investment is greater. It's one thing to end and wonder "what will the future hold" for our characters, and it's another thing to put the book down and feel like a promise was broken. Most endings should hit us like a piano dropped from 20 stories, not like a feather behind the ear.
Hope you're feeling better soon! It sucks to be sick, but you managed to crank out a great article at the same time and that's to be commended 😁
Loved this. Banshees was an amazing surprise of a film and the story, so small and simple and quiet for the most part was about so many things and i still wrestle with why the characters did what they did. And that's ok! Such a great reminder that everything doesnt have to be wrapped nicely with a bow!
This was a good post - people need to think and not always be fed answers they did not ask for - good for the old noggin' :)
I see that summarizing a lot in book reviews too. 3/4 of the “review” is nothing more than a summary of the book. That’s not what I wanted in a review. I wanted an opinion on a book, not a CliffNotes version of the lot. I can read the blurb just fine.
How dare you almost make me use up half of my day watching that very excellent Transformers video! At 48 minutes long, I wish there was an explainer video that captured the highlights!
I had a period of time where I was watching every "951 EASTER EGGS IN LATEST MARVEL EPISODE/MOVIE" video, but found that they were sapping my enjoyment of just being surprised at what was coming in later episodes. The Marvel TV shows/movies might be a special exception because there are decades of source material that referenced in them and sometimes it is nice to have an explainer to go through it all. But it's not something I would want to watch all the time.
However, I will defend to the death the excellent Pitch Meeting channel.
Ah, those videos. They're basically white noise in the suggestion video section to me when browsing youtube, like 'how it should have ended,' those modern presidents doing gaming things videos (popular gaming discourse is awful enough why would I want to watch it fused with obnoxious political memes), or anything with a real person making an exaggerated expression.
Though I've found that people do in fact have pretty bad media comprehension, enough to completely miss the point of very unsubtle stories and make me doubt if they actually experienced said work. So sadly I suspect these explainer videos are genuinely needed.
YouTube still isn't a primary source for everyone. There must be millions of websites offering not only explainers for films but also for TV and streaming.
The explainers often demonstrate the extent to which a devoted fan of something has failed at basic viewing and comprehension.
I recently read an ending explainer that got their speculative conclusion wrong. It wasn't even difficult. A Tshirt that appeared earlier was the same Tshirt worn by the final shooter. No guess work, no ambiguity. The explainer, meanwhile, had offered multiple possible perps for the ending. He only corrected later, following, I assume, bombardment from people who had paid attention, so already undersood the ending.
Yes! Actually I’m posting something soon about getting readers to “work for it”. Anyway I love the Banshees film and part of the reason is all the subtle layers that can be interpreted in many ways. Although somewhat of a parable, it takes on a life of its own about the Troubles, friendship, Modernity, etc. Really enjoy the later examples you use here and have to check out the other cinema channel. Kermode is the best! He’s got a great podcast as does Brett Goldstein (who interviews him on a special edition). Thanks for some great perspective and antidote to “black & white content”